RE: Southerly Waste Water Treatment Plant

["Weiner, Ruth" <rfweine@sandia.gov>]

Right on, Jim.  Also, I believe we have an obligation to "go public" when we
know the risks are greatly overblown.  

Clearly only my own opinion

Ruth F. Weiner, Ph. D.
Sandia National Laboratories 
MS 0718, POB 5800
Albuquerque, NM 87185-0718
505-844-4791; fax 505-844-0244
rfweine@sandia.gov

-----Original Message-----
From: Muckerheide [mailto:muckerheide@mediaone.net]
Sent: Thursday, July 29, 1999 10:11 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: Southerly Waste Water Treatment Plant


But "political and public perceptions" are driven by misrepresentations
and extreme responses of regulators and policy-makers that falsely tell
them "any radiation is a risk".  Don't blame the public, politicians,
and media for simply believing what they are told - by US.  Southerly
was taken for $2M by the regulators, not the "public".

Regards, Jim Muckerheide
muckerheide@mediaone.net
========================

James Reese wrote:
> 
> As most of us know, political and public perceptions drive these types of
> issues much more than sound scientific reasoning.  I am not familiar with
> the situation but I would bet that it hit the papers hard.  When this
> happens and the regulators and politicians are left red-faced, someone
> usually pays.  This time it was Southerly Plant.
> 
> Just my own thoughts.
> 
> James H. Reese
> Health Physicist
> (916) 689-2680 tel.
> (916) 689-6270 fax
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Karam, Andrew <Andrew_Karam@URMC.Rochester.edu>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
> Sent: Thursday, July 29, 1999 6:52 PM
> Subject: Southerly Waste Water Treatment Plant
> 
> > The risk posed by the Southerly Plant was minimal.  While working with
the
> > State of Ohio I calculated a maximum possible dose (assuming a person
was
> > lying on the hottest spot located continually from the date of
deposition
> > until they died of old age) of 14 rem.  The max credible dose was less
> than
> > one rem.  At one meeting I attended and NRC representative suggested
> taking
> > no actions because the remaining Co-60 would remain under institutional
> > controls for at least another 50 years and the risk did not justify the
> cost
> > of remediation.  Nevertheless, the decision was made to perform some
> > remediation that ended up costing Southerly about $2 million.  I am not
> > exactly sure why this decision was reached; it was after I left ODH.
> >
> > The site was discovered by accident during a flyover survey for a
> > neighboring U-contaminated site (Chemetron, for anyone who's
interested).
> > Until that survey, in 1990, I think, nobody had any idea that the Co was
> > there.  After reviewing all of the NRC licensees in the Southerly
service
> > area, Picker (then Advanced Medical Systems) was determined to be the
only
> > licensee who possessed enough Co-60 to have caused this problem.  My
> > recollection is that we decided some of it was likely released during
one
> > incident and some of as permitted discharges over time.  One sanitary
> sewer
> > manway near the Picker plant had relatively high rad levels inside,
> although
> > I can't remember how high. Multiple mr/hr, perhaps higher.
> >
> > I'm not sure what happened at Picker or AMS prior to 1990 or after 1992,
> > when I left ODH.  However, I am quite sure that the money spent did not
> > appreciably improve public health and safety.  In addition, I think it's
> > safe to say that, even though Picker's discharges were not physically
> > harmful, they ended up being financially harmful to Southerly.
> >
> > Andy
> >
> > Andrew_Karam@urmc.rochester.edu
> > ************************************************************************
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> >
> 
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